Tips on Becoming a Teacher Dr. R. J.

Kizlik Updated March 3, 2011 It is absolutely true that some people, from the time they are in first grade, know they want to be teachers. For others, the idea to become a teacher can be a sudden insight, or a feeling that ferments for years in some remote corner of their consciousness. Regardless of where the idea comes from, for many, the images associated with becoming a teacher are compelling. However, as is often the case in life, the differences between images and reality can be stark, unsettling, and disappointing. Current uncertainties in the American, as well as world economies only serve to exacerbate the differences. This reality is the reason for this page. We all know that as the "Baby Boomers" retire and leave teaching in large numbers over the next ten years, probably more than a million new teachers will be needed to replace them, let alone hundreds of thousands needed to keep pace with the anticipated growth of student populations, the current world-wide recession notwithstanding. Perhaps you will be one of these new teachers Perhaps not. The current world-wide recession as of February 2010 has had some impact on public school systems hiring new teachers. In some areas there are hiring freezes, increased class sizes and cuts in courses offered, all of which affect hiring. This situation likely won't last more than a few years, and teachers will be hired, but probably at a much slower pace, affected possibly by the decisions of older teachers to stay longer in teaching than they originally planned. My advice is to hang in there, and be patient. Please read on. For lack of a better way to say it, this page is about some basic teacher-things. For sure, not every person who wants to be a teacher should be a teacher. There is a vast gulf between the ideal of teaching and the reality of the classroom. Teaching probably won't make you rich, and, to be sure, no one should make any career decision without gathering as much information as possible. Tips on becoming a teacher is a start. Make no mistake; teaching is like no other profession. As a teacher, you will wear many hats. You will, to name but of a few of the roles teachers assume in carrying out their duties, be a communicator, a disciplinarian, a conveyor of information, an evaluator, a classroom manager, a counselor, a member of many teams and groups, a decision-maker, a role-model, and a surrogate parent. Each of these roles requires practice and skills that are often not taught in teacher preparation programs. Not all who want to be teachers should invest the time and resources in teacher training or teacher preparation programs if they do not have the appropriate temperament, skills, and personality. Teaching has a very high attrition rate. Depending on whose statistics you trust, around forty percent of new teachers leave teaching within the first five years. It is obviously not what they thought it would be. One thing for sure, it's about more than loving kids. Make no mistake; as a teacher, your day doesn't necessarily end when the school bell rings. If you're conscientious, you will be involved in after school meetings, committees, assisting students, grading homework, assignments, projects, and calling parents. All these demand some sacrifice of your personal time. If you're committed to excellence as a teacher, it's a sacrifice you can live with. If not, you will be uncomfortable at best. Teacher training and teacher preparation programs exist in every state, as well as in various forms of on-line courses and degree programs, and the requirements vary. You will have many options from which to choose. Choose wisely. My own advice is to select a program that offers a rich and solid foundation of courses, regardless of whether you intend to teach at the elementary, middle school, or high school level. I believe that no teacher education program, including the one in which I teach, can actually teach you how to teach. Rather, what we do is get you ready to learn how to teach, and that takes place on the job. My advice is to choose a program that offers a rich balance of subject matter content courses and pedagogy, including clinical experience in all its forms. You are learning both

skills and understandings in any teacher education program. Practice those skills as perfectly as possible, and strive each day to deepen your understandings of the concepts, theories and generalizations that you encounter. By doing so, you will build a solid foundation for learning how to teach once you become employed, and, you will be a better teacher. From my own teaching experience and from discussions and teaching many hundreds of teachers and thousands of teacher education students, there emerge common threads of understanding and skill that good teachers weave into an effective personal style of teaching. Assess your own knowledge and values in terms of your thoughts about the following: Good teachers: are good at explaining things. Do you like to explain how something works, or how something happened? Being comfortable with explaining content to students is an essential skill for teachers, regardless of the subject or grade level. keep their cool. There will be times when you will be tempted to scream or yell at your students, other teachers, parents, administrators, and so on. Good teachers are able to successfully resist this urge. have a sense of humor. Research has consistently shown that good teachers have a sense of humor, and that they are able to use humor as part of their teaching methods. Humor, used properly, can be a powerful addition to any lesson. like people, especially students in the age range in which they intend to teach. Most teachers choose an area of specialization such as elementary education, special education, secondary education, or higher education because they have a temperament for students in those age ranges. If you are not comfortable working with young children, don't major in elementary education! are inherently fair-minded. They are able to assess students on the basis of performance, not on the students' personal qualities. have "common sense." It may sound a bit corny, but good teachers are practical. They can size up a situation quickly and make an appropriate decision. Whether managing a classroom, leading students on a field trip, seamlessly shifting from one instructional procedure to another, assigning detentions, supervising an intern, or dealing with policy and curriculum issues in the school, there is no substitute for common sense. have a command of the content they teach. For elementary school teachers, that means having knowledge of a broad range of content in sufficient depth to convey the information in meaningful ways to the students. For secondary school teachers, it usually means having an in-depth command of one or two specific content areas such as mathematics or biology. set high expectations for their students and hold the students to those expectations. If you are thinking about becoming a teacher, you should set high expectations for yourself, and demand excellence not only of yourself, but your students as well. are detail oriented. If you are a disorganized person in your private life, you will find that teaching will probably be uncomfortable for you. At the very least, teachers must be organized in their professional and teaching duties. If you're not organized and are not detail oriented, teaching may not be the best choice of a profession for you. are good managers of time. Time is one of the most precious resources a teacher has. Good teachers have learned to use this resource wisely. can lead or follow, as the situation demands. Sometimes, teachers must be members of committees, groups, councils, and task forces. Having the temperament to function in these

capacities is extremely important. At other times, teachers assume leadership roles. Be sure you are comfortable being a leader or a follower, because sooner or later, you will be called on to function in those roles. don't take things for granted. This applies to everything, from selecting a college or school of education to filing papers for certification. Good follow-through habits should be cultivated throughout life, but they are never more important than during your teacher education program. Read the catalog, know the rules, be aware of prerequisites and meet deadlines. In one sense, you don't learn to teach by getting a degree and becoming certified. You learn to teach in much the same way you learned to drive -- by driving. You learn to teach by teaching, by making mistakes, learning from them and improving. The purpose of a teacher education program is to get you as ready as possible to learn how to teach by subjecting you to a variety of methods and experiences that have a basis in tradition and research. have some "hard bark" on them. Take it from me as a teacher in both public schools and at the university level, that you need some hard bark in order to survive, let alone thrive.

Below is an excerpt from the actual program. It is intended to provided you with a sense of components to help you make a decision to purchase or not. The Effective Teaching Power Pack 3.0 is a serious program, but I have taken pains to present the information and learning exercises in an easy-to-read and understand format. R. J. Kizlik The first section, "How to Write Learning Objectives,"
is the core component of the program, and in terms of size and complexity, the largest component. The purpose of "How to Write Learning Objectives" is to help you learn to be very clear in your professional communications about student learning outcomes It is designed to help you develop skill in writing learning objectives that accurately describe what a student must do for a teacher to infer that the student has learned what was intended. The section on how to write learning objectives is the result of many years of teaching others how to write objectives that meet demanding behavioral criteria, or to select objectives written by others that meet such criteria. The acquisition of this skill is fundamental to all teaching designed to lead others to acquire new skills or understandings, as well as to the development and improvement of curriculum. Competent teachers always have in mind some written description or clear idea of what students do to show they have learned what is intended for them to learn. Student learning cannot be inferred by osmosis, reflection, or wishful thinking; it never has and never will be. This section of the program you purchased is about learning objectives; how to compose them, recognize them, and improve them.

The second section, "How to Write Effective Lesson Plans" is intended to

give you a sense of the components of a good lesson plan by providing descriptions of the parts that are included in most lesson plan modules taught in schools and colleges of education. It is strongly recommended that you read this section AFTER you complete Part 1, "How to Write Learning Objectives." The skill of writing learning objectives is a sub-set of the skills needed for lesson planning. Without a doubt, learning to write effective lesson plans is a skill that all new teachers must develop and practice. There is no better way to organize the content you teach and how you see yourself teaching it than developing lesson plans that work. After a period of time, many teachers do not need to develop lesson plans with the

degree of specificity described in this program. They "own" both the content and teaching methods to the extent that much of the planning they do is purely mental. With time and experience this will also happen for you. It is a fundamental milestone in the process of becoming a professional teacher.

The Third section, "Teaching for Understanding"

seems at first blush to be a sort of a "no-brainer." After all, we as professional teachers should always seek to help our students understand what it is we are teaching. Fostering student understanding is a core principal of the teaching profession. This section is intended to give you some different perspectives on what it means to understand, and provide some ideas for differentiating teaching for understanding in such content areas as social studies and literature from teaching skill development in such areas as mathematics and writing. The point is made as clearly as possible in this section that in order for a teacher to infer that a student "understands" some content (usually expressed as a concept) the assessment must be based on more than an objective test. Teaching for understanding requires teacher analysis of student writing, projects, essays, and oral presentations. Teaching for understanding, as you will see, requires more teacher time in the assessment than does teaching for skills.

The fourth section, "How to Write Assessments Based on Learning Objectives" provides a description of what you need to do in order to ensure that the
assessments or tests that you develop are connected to the learning objectives upon which they are based. Assessments are ways that teachers determine whether certain conditions exist that clearly show whether learning has taken place. In lesson planning, it is absolutely essential that the actual assessments you develop accurately reflect and measure the specifications of the learning objectives. There is no alternative! This section will show you how to do this, including what to consider as you formulate assessments.

The fifth section, "Teaching Methods: Pros and Cons" is a list of teaching
methods with information on their advantages, disadvantages, and information about what sort of preparation teachers must make in order to employ the methods effectively. The methods are not described in detail, but are categorized in terms of being primarily direct or indirect instruction. The listed methods encompass a wide range of techniques used by teachers at all grades and with all subjects.

The sixth section, "Quick Tips on what Works" is just that. This section
provides some very brief ideas and descriptions of both teacher and student behaviors that have utility for teaching in a number of subject areas. It is not intended to be any sort of comprehensive list, but presents a consensus of experience and opinion of what works in a real classrooms. It is neither comprehensive no so long as to cause you to take notes, or ponder the deeper meaning of these little gems. Were that the case, it would not make sense to call this section "Quick Tips." Taken it face value, they present some sound advice for a new or beginning teacher. Hopefully, they will spur your own ideas and thinking about what works for you and you own particular teaching style.

The seventh section, "How to Select Instructional Programs" provides a

discussion with examples of what constitutes a complete instructional program, how the parts fit together, and what questions to ask of others, including sales personnel, education administrators, teachers, college professors or others who make recommendations to buy, adopt or otherwise cause a school or school system to purchase and implement a particular instructional program. Knowing the difference between a complete program and anything else that purports to be so, but is not, is very important. The information in this section will help develop your professional thinking skills in this area.

The eighth section, "Classroom Management Fundamentals"

is quite large and is intended to give you some perspective about what works and what doesn't work, including how to deal with the parents or guardians of your students.. The examples and information presented are drawn from a variety of sources, including personal experience of the author, interviews with successful teachers, including National Board Certified teachers, observations, journal articles, and reference materials. As you will see, being successful in managing your classroom is just one part of the total package of being a successful teacher. You must also know your subject matter content in more than one way if possible. You must be able to translate what you know into forms that assist students to learn. You must be able to plan effective lessons, and actually deliver instruction, prepare and implement assessments, and, yes, make preparations and decisions about the conduct of students in a variety of settings. Effective classroom management requires understanding the rules, knowledge of basic principles of human psychology, plus common sense, and consistency, Generally speaking, teachers get better at managing their classrooms with experience and the willingness to learn from mistakes and make appropriate adjustments.

The ninth section, Classroom Management Traps gives you a list and brief
descriptions of all too common mistakes that new and inexperienced teachers often make in managing their classrooms. It is such traps that can make the initial teaching experience for new teachers extremely stressful, and that can lead to burnout and disenchantment with teaching. This section also offers some sound advice regarding what to do about these situations.

The tenth section, "How to Rank Priorities and Goals"

describes a very logical and efficient model for ranking priorities and goals. The model is useful for working in groups or on an individual basis. As a teacher, you will find that participation in various groups, and committees usually comes down to making lists of objectives or activities and then ranking them. This easy to understand, yet very powerful technique can improve the process and result in more valid and reliable results.